The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has warned against “complacency”
over violent crime in Britain as he made his final radio broadcast before
standing down as head of the Church of England.

Dr Rowan Williams suggested there was a danger of ignoring knife and gun crime in British cities.

His intervention came in the wake of a shooting earlier this month that killed 20 primary schoolchildren and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the US.

The Archbishop, who is to step down at the end of this month, mounted an attack on the defenders of US gun laws who claim “people” are entirely responsible for shootings, rather than their firearms.

It followed a demand yesterday by America’s most powerful gun lobby for armed guards in every school.

But speaking on Radio 4 in his final contribution to the Today programme's Thought for the Day as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams warned that once people become armed with guns, “everything looks like a target”.

"Nearly 6,000 children and teenagers were killed by firearms in the USA in just two years," he said. "And we had better not be complacent about the issues of gun and knife crime affecting people in our own cities here. In the UK, the question is how we push back against gang culture by giving people the acceptance and respect they deserve so that they don't look for it in destructive places."

He added: “There is one thing often said by defenders of the American gun laws that ought to make us think about wider questions: ‘It’s not guns that kill, it’s people.’ Well, yes, in a sense.

“But it makes a difference to people what weapons are at hand for them to use – and, even more, what happens to people in a climate where fear is rampant and the default response to frightening or unsettling situations or personal tensions is violence or the threat of violence.”

“If all you have is a hammer, it’s sometimes said, everything looks like a nail. If all you have is a gun, everything looks like a target," he said.

“People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action.”

Stricter controls over the sales of weapons would be only “a start”, Dr Williams said.

“But what will really make the difference is dealing with fear and the pressure to release our anxiety and tension at the expense of others,” he added.

The story of Christmas shows that the atmosphere of “fear and hostility” is not a “natural climate” for humans and can be changed, Dr Williams said.